Our Trip in a Nutshell

Wow, we had a LONG vacation. We spent 2 weeks in the St. Louis area. We drove the 14 hours in our van, which worked out pretty well. We drove mostly during afternoon/night so Natalie would sleep or watch 1 DVD. She was a great travel companion, and was pretty quiet!

We spent our first week with Ryan's family in O Fallon, Missouri. We met all our friends at a BBQ to welcome home Sam (The Talley's) from his second tour in Iraq, and to celebrate the 4th. We also visited the Magic House, a really cool children's museum. Grant's Farm was another day, it's owned by AB so we got our free beer samples, as well as saw lots of cool animals. Natalie was nearly mauled by the goats. A family BBQ on the 4th was fun. Then we we out on a date night to dinner and a bit of gambling on the riverboat.

Then we moved across the river to stay with my parents in Waterloo, IL. We stopped a hotel downtown for swimming with my cousins and Natalie's second cousins. While with my parents we saw Great Grandpa and Great Grandma. We saw the animals at the St. Louis Zoo, and visited the elephant that was born on Natalie's Birthday. The City Museum was one of our best stops. It's an artist who has welded all these old and new things into an amazing place to climb and play. They had a 3 story slide that Natalie loved.

Although we hate leaving our family and friends, it was nice to get Drake back and settle back home. Here are a few pictures, but I have over 500 in various My Space albums if you want more Natalie!